Battle of the coconut waters hots up

With coconut water one of the hottest and fastest-going non-alcoholic drinks categories in the UK (worth over £22m at retail, according to Nielsen, and forecast to become a £100m market in the coming years), it was only a matter of time before the cola giants got involved.

Coca-Cola Enterprises already has the Zico brand on the shelves, and fierce rival PepsiCo announced this week that it had launched Naked Coconut Water onto UK shelves, joining an existing portfolio of Naked smoothies and juices.

“Coconut Water has seen significant growth in the UK over the last few years,” said Naked’s marketing director, Adrian Baty. “Naked Coconut Water offers a great quality, 100% coconut water, and our research has told us that consumers see it fitting really well within the Naked range.”

Naked Coconut Water has been available in the US since 2010 in additional flavours including peach, mango and pineapple. PepsiCo did not say whether it would offer different flavours in the UK, revealing only that the new product would be available in a 500ml tetra pack with a resealable cap for £2.39, and that the product would be promoted over the summer via sampling campaigns.